Perhaps we should have squeezed in a meal somewhere along the way as it was nigh on 10pm before we finally got around to eating something!
Sunday was all about getting away home. Jane packed up what needed to be removed from the boat whilst I went in search of a replacement petrol can and 5l of petrol. With that procured, I filled the outboard with fresh petroil and she started first pull of the cord and ran sweetly ... for about ten seconds
I then turned the fuel tap back on (which I'd turned off yesterday!) and started it again. Doh! She buzzed around from alongside Erbas back to the tender dock as sweetly as ever (which isn't very but then it is a 2 stroke outboard!) where I hauled the dinghy out and back into its space adding a substantial padlock and chain between one of the davit eyes in the hull and the steelwork of the dock.
Then it was away home as Jane is back at work. I'm straight back down within a day or two as I've got a long list of jobs for customers and a yacht delivery for a friend (more on that later) to try and squeeze in before our next trip in just over three weeks time
Summary ...
(With extra pics, some mine and some Riks)
Our departure, you may recall, was delayed by the first Fambridge River Festival ...
Lots of gaffers, a couple of Thames Sailing barges, including resident barge Ironsides, a smack, some Dutch barges and a steam victualling vessel made for quite a spectacle on the river.
Meanwhile, I was making a spectacle of myself on the other side of the sea wall performing my first gig for several years ....
We were out on our mooring keeping out of the way, not being wooden, a gaffer or steam powered so our RIB was much in use ferrying ourselves and our stuff backwards and forwards ...
and we too were making our preparations to set off.
I totally forgot, on the day, to mention the marvellous sight we saw in the approaches to Ramsgate ...
The paddle steamer "Medway Queen", currently being fitted out at Gillingham after a major hull rebuild in Bristol, had made her way round to Ramsgate under tow for the Dunkirk evacuation events (she was at Dunkirk and rescued over 7,000 men) and we met her leaving Ramsgate on her way home
She will eventually be restored to run under her own power although exactly what her future use will be has yet to be decided.
From Ramsgate we ventured across the Channel for the first time in what proved to be a relatively straightforward and uneventful trip. Our departure from Gravelines was delayed by a day due to the weather and we grabbed the transient opportunity of a passing window in the poor conditions to nip up the coast to the Belgian port of Niuewpoort. With a poor forecast for several days we booked in for four nights knowing that it was as far as we would get
The arrival off Nieuwpoort was hectic. I have never seen so many sailing boats in one place and the best pics Rik could grab don't even begin to do it justice ...
It is a simply vast basin with over 2,500 pontoon berths ...
Astonishingly, after all those yachts, and there must have been at least sixty of them, possibly more, made their way in after a days racing, within an hour there was hardly a soul about
An afternoon at Oostende voor Anker was a welcome trip out despite the poor weather. Another time we'll hopefully get to spend more time at the festival
I've covered the bad day at the office fully in earlier posts, nuff said.
The good day at the office was actually quite boring! I didn't expect it to be anything else, to be fair. A passage across the North Sea is likely to be a means to an end rather than fun thing to do in itself (although I accept others may find that sort of sailing to their liking, we found it a bit of a drag)
And that was that
Conclusions ...
We are agreed that of our two week cruises to date, this was the least successful of them. It wasn't a bad trip but it lacked something in the fun department.
We didn't get a lot of sailing in at all when you get right down to it. The weather certainly stuffed us royally on that score. OK, so we ticked off the boxes on the "things to do before you die" list of making our first cross channel crossing and making our first passage across the North Sea and I have to say ... big deal!
Neither passage was particularly difficult or demanding, even working through the various shipping lanes proved a lot less tricky than I thought it might, and there's nothing to see out there but sea (and ships of course, lots of ships!)
We found Gravelines to be a pretty little place but dull! I have never seen a place so quiet, there was virtually nobody about and very little traffic whatever the time of day. The marina facilities are OK but when all's said and done it's just another marina and it's a fair hike into the town itself where, as already mentioned, nothing much happens. In nicer weather we'd have made the effort to go out on the town one evening but it isn't going to be a port of call we'll be rushing back to. Oh don't get me wrong, we'd go there again if it suited our plans, there's nothing wrong with the place, but I'd much rather go to, say, Southwold than Gravelines
Niuewpoort was, if anything, even worse! OK, I grant you we were probably in the wrong marina from a shore access point of view but at 32 euros for 4 nights in VVW compared to 22 euros for one night in KYCN it was no contest financially.
From VVW it's a fair tramp to the tram station, even further to the town centre and when you get there ... hardly any sign of life at all! This is a town of 11,000 odd people, where the hell do they all go????
There's a bit more life in Nieupoort Bad (it means "Bath" apparently) which is the coastal strip. It's virtually all modern apartment blocks with modern shops on the frontage, there's very little in the way of history to be seen. It's nice enough but not really our thing.
Like Gravelines, we'd go back if it suited our plans, although if at all possible I'd bite the bullet and spend the extra money to be in KYCN within easy walking distance of the action, such as it is.
So overall it has to be said that our first trip to foreign lands was not an unqualified success. It was interesting and gave us food for thought for future plans. Our conclusion is that we were in the wrong places at the wrong time in the wrong weather!
Our next venture to the other side, which may not be next year as we have other considerations to take into account, would probably involve pushing on further West along the French coast or heading across to the Netherlands. I'd also quite like to go direct by boat to Oostende voor Anker now that my slight advance nerves about crossing the North Sea and, particularly, dealing with the formalities in a foreign land, have been assuaged.
Oh and one final thought ... the next person who tells me that the English can't cook and French food is much better and / or claims that Belgian beer is superior to English beer (like hell, it's just strong - too strong) is going to get what for and no mistake! I've been to these 'ere Furrin Parts now and never was I so happy as to be presented with a good honest pint of Adnams Southwold bitter and a good honest plate of Steak Pie and Chips as I was in the Alma last Thursday night!!!!
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